The present embodiments relate to locating cardiac anatomy. In particular, the aorta and left atrium are located using data representing a patient.
Accurate morphological and functional measurements of the heart assist in clinical applications for diagnosis, prognostic, and therapeutic decisions. In addition to the left ventricle (left ventricle) evaluation during a cardiac exam, aorta and left atrium (LA) evaluation may be important in analyzing the heart functionalities. For example, the aorta is used to measure blood flow, and LA is used to examine electrophysiological behavior. Standard heart views (e.g., 2-chamber, 3-chamber, 4-chamber and short-axis views from base to apex) for diagnosis may be imaged based on position determination of the aorta and/or left atrium.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) allows morphological characterization of heart structures with precision. Cardiac MRI is used in clinical practice due to good image quality and balance of spatial and temporal resolutions over CT and ultrasound. To achieve better image quality, the anatomy of interest is aligned with an iso-center of a MRI scanner.
To locate the heart of the patient to be placed at the iso-center or for subsequent scanning for a standard view, two-dimensional images of the patient are acquired. The heart is anchored using a multi-step approach involving the acquisition of double-oblique slices, such as a stack of slices across the left ventricle long axis (e.g., pseudo short-axis (PSAX) views). Based on these localizer images, the part of the heart is manually anchored. The slice where the anatomy of target resides is selected by the user. The anatomy is anchored by the user with a marker, such as anchoring the left atrium center in the two-dimensional (2D) slice. As these 2D slices have their three-dimensional (3D) world-coordinates recorded, the 3D world-coordinates of the anchor for the target anatomy may be calculated. The entire anchoring process relies on detailed knowledge of the heart for operators and a number of interactions with the scanner user interface to browse the localizer slices and select locations, all while the patient is in the scanner. This approach is operator-dependent and time consuming.